Day 5: Looking into the Mirror

It's a bit of a sad day because our friends ( ICS Team for Bohol) left us around 10:00 AM. It felt like we have known each other for a long time. We can't imagine that it was just for more than 2 days since we met. Is it maybe because we share a common passion? Is it because deep within our hearts we know we have touched each other's lives even for a very brief time?

After they left on a van, we had a short session about cultural awareness and cross-cultural working. Our British program supervisor lead the session by dividing us into 3 groups with emphasis given to the Deaf Volunteers on sharing about the Filipino Deaf Culture.

"Happy Outside. Hurting Inside". It's the metaphor that my friend Malou shared during our work in the Mental Health Program for Sendong Response about 4 months ago. We Filipinos have this tendency to not show our real emotion to others. It's closer to the "It's okay." response that we do when asked about something which maybe because we find it hard to say "No". But I do believe that we are assertive, its just that its our way of expressing how much we value the relationships we have.

Hearing on the Filipino Deaf Volunteers about their culture slowly opened my view on how could I interact and understand them better. "It's in looking at their perspective that I can be able to get the best grasp of the world they're living.". If we never heard a sound our whole lives, what could have been the difference?

Here are some points I learned about them:

1. They tend to be frank. They immediately say the truth about you.
Example:
A deaf says to another deaf, "Your getting fat.". The deaf won't get offended because it's part of their culture.

2. They tend to use Acronyms. They want to sign things faster and don't do much finger spells.
Example:
Hearing people uses GF for Girlfriend. Deaf people also use the same.

3. The Filipino Time.
It's not only true for the Hearing Filipinos but also for the deaf Filipinos. If you plan to meet at 8:00 , they usually arrive at 9:00.

4. Love to spend time chatting.
Most of the families of the Deaf Filipinos don't know sign language so it would be really hard to communicate at home. They usually chat with their fellow deaf and comes home very late at night.

5. They love to joke about a person and mimics their very obvious habits.
Deaf people are very visual so they can easily detect obvious habits of a person. Don't get embarrassed if they keep on acting like your most used gesture, it's their way of having fun and getting close at someone.

6. Deaf people loves to Party.
Even though they can't hear the music, they can still feel the vibrations. Usually , when having a disco, they stand near the speakers or makes the sound louder and surely they will also be joining you do the gangnam style. :D

7. They don't want to get embarrassed.
If you want to give comments, suggestions or your corrections to a deaf person, make sure you don't do it in public. They don't want to be embarrased.



These are just few things that I learned about being Filipino. We had fun time looking at the mirror today to discover what we really are. Unless we know ourselves, only then, can we truly begin to know others.

One thing that is surely evident of today: "That we Filipino's - Hearing or Deaf - we know how to care, we know how to love, we know how to share, and , we know that it's not on the length of time we have spent together - its what we have built while we have each other."